


Inverted

by ughineedcoffee



Series: The Runt of the Litter [4]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Family, Family Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Little Sisters, Protective Winchesters (Supernatural), Winchester Sister
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:34:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28820067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ughineedcoffee/pseuds/ughineedcoffee
Summary: Six times Anna took care of her brothers, instead of the other way around.
Series: The Runt of the Litter [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2112966
Comments: 5
Kudos: 19





	Inverted

**Author's Note:**

> This is a collection of snapshots with Anna at different ages in each one. In order, she is three, seven, eleven, thirteen, sixteen, and then nineteen. Enjoy!

"Daddy says you got a guy-jantic booboo."

Dean, half sitting up against the headboard of a rickety motel bed, squinted through bloodshot eyes at the three year old on the floor. "What?"

"You got a guy-jantic booboo."

Eyebrows pulled together, one raised. Then there was some clarity. "Gigantic," Dean murmured to himself. "Dad said that?"

"Uh-huh," Anna confirmed. She gripped the edge of the comforter hanging off the bed and leaned forward, tilting her face up to look into Dean's eyes. "Can I sit with you?" she requested sweetly, and there just wasn't any way Dean could say no to that. She hauled herself up onto the bed and crawled over to sit under his arm. "Memmer when I closed my finger in the 'pala?"

Dean leaned his aching head back against the headboard and hummed an affirmative response as he closed his eyes. He wondered when John would get back and found he didn't really care that much.

"You fixed it really good," Anna explained in her signature rushed babble. "An' we watched Spongebob."

Dean rubbed a hand over his face and smirked. He could see where this was going now.

"I tan't fix your booboo," Anna said regretfully. "But we tan watch Spongebob! Do you wanna?"

His arm dropped around her and Dean pulled the kid closer. Noticing the remote control on the nightstand, he reached over to pick it up and hand it to her. Before long, the little TV flicked on, and a sponge in glasses held a jellyfish net on the screen.

"I tan put it closer," Anna offered a few seconds later. She started to move to get down, but Dean tugged her back up to sit next to him. He could just picture the TV falling and crushing her if she tried to push it closer to the bed, and he was in no shape to move anything bigger than Anna.

"It's perfect where it is, Munchkin," he assured.

Anna grinned at his use of the word 'perfect.' For the next ten minutes, she alternated between watching the cartoon on screen and scrutinizing Dean's expression.

"Are you better?" she asked as the commercial break splitting the two episodes began.

Dean smiled tiredly. "Yeah, kiddo. Way better."

()()()

"Does it hurt worse than a splinter?"

Sam smiled around the gauze pressed against his face. "Little bit worse," he answered.

"Stop yakking, or I'm never gonna get the bleeding stopped," Dean muttered, holding the gash on Sam's chin closed with a wad of gauze.

Anna dragged over a chair from the table and stood up on it so she could be at the right level to see Sam's wound. "Do you want me to help?" she offered Dean with a gravely serious look in her eyes.

Dean turned his head left and was greeted by her-- very close-- little face. "I want you to stand on the floor," he requested instead of taking her up on her offer.

Solemnly, Anna sat on her feet in the chair rather than standing on it. She watched as Dean pulled the gauze away and dabbed at the gash, making Sam wince. "Gonna have to stitch this or it's gonna start bleeding again every time you open your mouth. And God knows you won't be able to resist."

Sam looked displeased at the prospect of stitches-- or maybe at Dean's teasing-- but he didn't say anything. He just held in place the gauze Dean guided his hand to. As Dean began to lay out the materials to stitch up Sam's chin, there was another little huff of displeasure from the chair beside the bed.

"Got a problem, Runt?" came the absentminded question.

Anna slid off the chair and shoved it toward Dean. He looked surprised but did adjust it and sit down to begin working on Sam's face. Anna put her hands on Sam's knee and looked up at him intently, ignoring the way his hand went to her shoulder as if to keep her still so she wouldn't jostle him while Dean had a needle at his face.

"Do you want to hold Halloween?"

It was a big offer. The frog was Anna's most prized possession because she didn't think of Halloween as a possession, but as her closest friend. While she would often hand him to Dean wordlessly when she had to go to the bathroom or was going to play with something else, she had yet to hand him to Sam since he'd rejoined the family a few months ago. Sam had been offered a lot more than a stuffed animal as a comfort object. It felt like he'd been offered trust and love.

Unable to answer verbally-- if the warning look Dean gave him was any indication-- Sam just held a hand out. Seconds later, a familiar stuffed frog landed in his palm, and he tried his best to ignore the telltale smirk on Dean's face that meant there was teasing in his future.

But as the needle slid, stinging, through the skin of his chin, Sam had to fight the urge to smile.

()()()

"I learned how to do this a little while ago. I can really do it, Sammy. I promise."

Sam gave his sister an uncertain look. "You've really done it before? You're not making that up? Because we could wait for Dean to get back. It's really not that bad."

Anna put her hands on her hips. "Well, duh. If it was worse, it would need stitches instead of butterflies, and I can't _do_ stitches." She hurried into the bathroom and came back with the first aid kit. She knelt on a chair beside the bed where Sam was sitting. "You just have to trust me. And I trust you all the time, so it's only fair."

"Only fair," Sam repeated with a breathy laugh. "Alright, Anna, clean and bandage it."

"Alright?" Anna echoed hopefully.

"I said alright. You know how to do it, and Dean's still out. So do it."

Anna grinned but forced herself to reign in the excitement. It was rare that she get to help them during or after a hunt in any capacity, so she had good reason to be excited for this opportunity. But she also had learned only recently how to apply butterfly bandages so that they would be secure and keep the wound closed, so she really needed to concentrate. She couldn't botch this opportunity to prove herself.

"Okay, this might hurt," she told her brother seriously and leaned in with an antiseptic wipe. Sam was holding his shirt up on the left side so that she could see the wound in his side under his arm. He hissed as she started to disinfect the cut, and she remembered how Dean would usually talk through this kind of thing, making dumb jokes or providing distractions. "How'd you get hurt?" she asked. "I thought you had to go to the woods to find the black dog."

Her distraction was effective, because Sam stopped looking at the wound to answer her. "We do," he said. "That's where it's hiding out. Turns out, though, that it may not be here under its own will."

Anna paused what she was doing and looked up at her brother. "You mean somebody put a spell on it? Like the guy who took my memories?"

"That's what I'm thinking. It might explain why the victim pool seemed so random. Maybe they were all connected to Harrison, and we just never knew-" He cut himself off suddenly and looked down at her small fingers closing the cut and pressing the first butterfly bandage into place. "Sorry, kiddo. I'm not sure why I'm telling you all this. Hunting's not your job."

"That's okay," Anna told him and smoothed the edges of a second butterfly bandage over Sam's skin. "I like to know about it, so I can learn how to be a hunter."

Sam went quiet, and she wondered whether she'd said something wrong to make him clam up like that. But she couldn't find anything wrong with her comment, so she just focused on her work fixing up the cut in his side. It didn't take very long. He only needed five bandages.

"You can have Dean check when he gets back if you want," she told him while throwing away bandage wrappers and packing up the kit.

"That's alright, Ladybug. You did a good job. It feels secure." He cleared his throat, and Anna looked over at him, seeing a seriousness to his eyes even as he spoke casually. "Maybe you could be a doctor someday."

Anna wrinkled her nose. "Why? You can help more people hunting. Or as many at least. And it's the family _business_."

Sam looked disheartened as he turned away. Anna frowned. She'd healed something, but she'd hurt something too.

()()()

"You can _not_ get up."

"Excuse me?" Dean asked, narrowing his eyes at his sister.

Anna was unfazed, her hands on her hips, her expression stern. "Sam told me not to let you out of bed. You can't get out of bed."

"Uh-huh. Well, I gotta leave a leak, and I don't think any of us want me doing that in this bed. Is that alright with you?" he added sarcastically. He started moving the motel blanket away from his legs, and Anna grabbed his arm to offer help. "Rugrat, I'm a grown man. I can go to the bathroom by myself."

Anna shot him such a strong bitch face, Dean actually reared back a little. "As much as I'd love to watch you try and stand and end up on your ass on the floor, Dean, I actually don't think I'd be able to pick you up after. Make it easier for both of us, please."

She knew by the raised eyebrow that she got in return that she was treading thin ice with her tone of voice, so she chose not to say anything more. But she didn't have any patience for her brother's machismo attitude. When he started moving toward the edge of the bed again, this time looking like he thought he had something to prove, she stepped aside with an eye roll and crossed her arms over chest, just watching.

Dean glanced sideways at her just before pushing himself to his feet. Almost immediately, he stumbled sideways but managed to catch himself on the nightstand. He shot a look over his shoulder at Anna and grumbled, "Shut up."

"I didn't say anything," Anna said and raised her hands in a show of innocence.

Dean locked his jaw and braced his hands against the wall to start walking toward the bathroom. His first step showed he had a major limp, and his second step had him wrapping an arm around his middle and the many broken ribs there.

Anna cleared her throat but didn't say anything more. She kept her expression flat, even a little smug, but she was cringing internally at the sight of Dean's pain. It was so blatant to her that he was putting himself through torture he didn't need to experience just to prove a point and it made her loathe his stubbornness. But, because she'd inherited that same stubbornness, she stood her ground, waiting for him to give in first and ask her for help.

It took two more steps before he almost face-planted, and Anna stopped waiting. She ducked under his arm just in time to keep him upright.

"Didn't fall," Dean panted.

Anna rolled her eyes. "You didn't make it to the bathroom either."

"Rub it in," he grouched.

Anna smirked. She put up no fight about giving him plenty of privacy, but she appeared back at the bathroom door the second he started to ease it open.

As she helped him sat back on the edge of the bed a second later, Dean yawned and said, "You ever swear at me again, you'll be running laps at four in the morning."

Anna wrinkled her nose at the implication, partially because she knew he'd follow through on that and partially because he'd remembered to scold her about cursing at him several minutes after the fact and while he was dead on his feet. "Yeah, don't thank me or anything," she said sarcastically. But she meant it too, and the little smile that graced Dean's face as his back hit the mattress and he drifted back to sleep said he knew it.

()()()

_Let's switch places_ , Sam's crying eyes said. _You be the older sibling today._

Anna put a careful hand on his head, fingers buried in his shaggy hair, and pulled him close, his head against her chest. She'd never seen him look this vulnerable, and she'd certainly never seen him look her in the eyes and silently beg for help before. She'd never felt bigger than him, either. But with him sitting on a fallen tree and her standing next to him, she actually had to hunch down to wrap her arms around his shoulders.

She didn't have words, because she'd never filled this role before. It made her feel a new sort of admiration for Dean. He always knew what to say. It made her wish, in the back of her mind, that Dean was there with them to take her place. _What would he do?_ she wondered. He'd have placed his palm against Sam's head briefly but he would have made it look like a parent's touch, and Anna knew she had done the opposite somehow. Then he would have patted Sam's shoulder, maybe pulled him sideways for a hug like Anna was doing now. He'd have called him Sammy, because when Dean did it, it made Sam sound young and protectable, but when Anna did it, it made him sound like her big brother, so that was a no-go.

He'd have promised that things would be okay. He'd have told Sam that the pyre they were building wasn't his fault. He'd have made a joke that really wasn't funny, but Sam would laugh wetly at it and swipe tears away from his eyes. Somehow, things would feel better.

Anna didn't have that kind of power. Her hands felt sloppy, one buried in Sam's hair and the other braced against his arm. She felt like she was holding him too tight or not tight enough and couldn't be sure which. She felt like she was trying to take comfort as much as she was giving it. She felt selfish in what was supposed to be a selfless act. She was trying to do it right, but it felt wrong. She wished that she could blame that on Sam for asking her to trade places with him, but she couldn't. He was a human being, and he was hurting, and she was the only one there. It was only decent for her to put her hand on his shoulder and say something encouraging.

She felt mediocre for it, though, because her words were too young, her hands too clumsy.

"It's okay, Sam," she said anyway, trying to make the words powerful and serene. Dean would have. "It wasn't your fault."

Sam shook his head a little, but he also put a hand over hers where it was resting on his arm. "I'm sorry," he said, and Anna knew she hadn't done the job right.

"For what?" she said without giving herself the time to overthink it. Quickly, she realized it was what Dean would have said. It forced Sam to see for himself how ridiculous it was to apologize for seeking comfort, for being human rather than robotically emotionless. She cared about him. Of course she would try to help him and expect nothing in return. She felt, in fact, that she should apologize to him for being so bad at this. But she knew that would be an equally ridiculous apology. She was trying her best. And he was trying his best.

She just wasn't used to being taller, and he wasn't used to being shorter.

()()()

Almost a year spent as a full time hunter and moments like this still had her so frustrated that it took all her self-control just to keep from screaming. She felt so undignified, crouched behind an upturned desk, trying to draw an angel-banishing sigil with her own blood as fast as she could. Something crashed against the wall in the next room and she glanced that way for just a second, though she couldn't see anything that was happening. She turned back to the sigil drawing with renewed fervor.

"You think you're clever, hiding like a little girl?"

Finishing the final detail of the sigil, Anna smirked and said out loud, "No. I think I'm buying time."

She popped up from behind the desk, caught the angel's startled, angry eyes, and pressed her bleeding palm against the sigil she'd made up on the bottom of the desk. A crazed scream overtook the room, and Anna smiled slyly as the angel disappeared in a flash of light. The expression faded away with the banishing light, though, as she remembered where she'd left her brothers.

"Fuck angels," she growled under her breath while running out of the room, snatching an angel blade smoothly off the floor on her way. She wasn't sure whether the sigil would have had any impact on the angels in the next room, but she sure hoped so. The crashing sounds that had continued since she was tackled into this room right up until the moment she pressed her hand to the sigil hadn't been helping her stay calm.

Fortunately, the room was devoid of angels when she stopped in the doorway, and Anna sighed in relief. She slipped the blade into the side of her boot and looked between Sam and Dean, both of whom were laying on the floor looking rather sore. Sam began to pull himself into a sitting position and didn't seem to be having too hard a time moving, though, and Dean was still on the ground, holding his side, so she moved toward him first.

"Hey, you okay?" she asked and hit one knee beside him. She put her hands under his shoulders and helped him sit up.

He groaned on the way up but nodded after a second. "Yeah, I'm good. I'm good."

"You sure?" she checked, watching him press his hand against his forehead as if it hurt. He nodded in answer to her question, but Anna wasn't really satisfied. It was the answer she always got, and Dean wasn't often as fine as he said he was. She discreetly checked the back of his head while he had his hands covering his face and was glad that there was at least no blood or noticeable bump. Theoretically, that meant he hadn't done any real harm and was just gonna have a headache from a knock he'd taken.

Sam appeared next to them a second later, and Anna got to her feet so they could each reach down a hand and work together to pull Dean to his feet.

"Who got a sigil down?" Dean asked while panting through what was obviously either dizziness or pain as he continued to keep a hand pressed against his forehead. Anna began to think about concussions even as she bobbed her eyebrows to communicate that she'd drawn the sigil. "Oh," Dean reacted, not sounding so much like he hadn't expected her to be the one but certainly sounding somewhat impressed. "Nice," he added and clasped her shoulder proudly such that Anna grinned.

"Yeah, well, when you're working with a coupl'a old guys, sometimes you gotta pick up the slack."

She got a couple of barely masked smiles and a warning finger from Dean as he reminded her to, "Watch it."

Anna just smirked again. She was beginning to feel she had the hang of this hunting thing, and this moment felt like proof. She'd done a job that didn't used to be hers today, and she'd done it well.

_la fin_


End file.
